


Careful What You Pack

by SpiritsDrifting



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:08:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26980396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritsDrifting/pseuds/SpiritsDrifting
Summary: Ellie can't reconcile with her past, but with the emergence of a new case and the return of her old partner, maybe she has no choice.
Relationships: Alec Hardy/Ellie Miller
Comments: 13
Kudos: 35





	Careful What You Pack

Wispy tan crema that floated atop Ellie Miller’s coffee had long dissipated as she peered over dozens of papers of potential evidence across her living room floor. Only several small sips were enjoyed before she immersed herself in expansive files of evidence involving the murder of a local University student. Moments like these often lead her to think that the tedious act of sorting through vague bits of information felt an awful lot like drowning.

Ellie peered out a frost-covered window of her new house in Broadchurch. Despite a whirling chain of thoughts consuming her, the outside night was deeply still, as if the wind had deliberately halted its movement out of respect for the recently deceased. It had only been a week since the murder, the lifeless body found by a few passing school children. Tom and Fred were similarly quiet and, presumably, fast asleep.

“You just had to take a future scholar, huh?” She spoke softly while her eyes did the work of skimming over debriefing documents that peered into the life of Sohui Park. Sohui was a PhD candidate of bioinformatics and computational biology, preparing her thesis and looking ahead to post-doctoral studies. Except now, that doctorate will never be attainable. That post-doc and potential bright career and life as a lead scientist was burnt and smoldered, dead.

Ellie lurched toward her phone perched on the side coffee table to read the time. 1:20 AM had evidently arrived and Ellie had made absolutely no advancements on this case, although the information had just been passed onto her yesterday from her boss.

“I’m totally done with you for tonight, Sohui”, she said as she raised both hands to the files to display empty conclusions and temporary defeat. She was fast realizing that her productivity had peaked roughly four hours ago and there was no way in hell she was getting it back tonight. The radiator hissed at her as she changed out of her jeans and into sweatpants, welcoming the prospect of a strong sleep before a nagging Friday morning.

  
——

  
An early morning meeting at the police station had forced everyone’s end-of-week grogginess to a halt. Ellie and her immediate coworkers hadn’t the vaguest idea about what this meeting could be, although there might be a possibility of a lead to this case, she thought.

The head of Broadchurch Police signaled everyone to a central point in the middle of the open-space desk assembly. “Is everyone here? I’ve got some, well, potentially exciting news for all of you, as you may have noticed..”

Ellie couldn’t hear anything she was announcing as dozens of her coworkers who, some much taller than herself, had now flooded the area. In the midst of the chaos, someone had elbowed her coffee unknowingly, spilling it down the midst of her beige blouse. Her instinctive reaction led her to back up a few paces to avoid spilling more of the scolding hot liquid over her, but the damage had been done. Muttering expletives, she continued pacing outward, away from the meeting point and towards the restroom, continuing the pinball-like motion of herself amongst the growing diameter of coworkers until she hit an unmoving barrier. 

“Ahh! Sorry, sorry”, she blurted out before turning around to face whoever had unfortunately been behind her. And in her current condition, stained blouse and overall listless appearances, she wasn’t sure she wanted to face anyone.

“You’re alright, you’re alright,” a Scottish accent that had a peculiar softness had replied to her, familiar and male. He reactively placed both his hands atop Ellie’s shoulders, likely to stop her from charging further into his suited frame.

Ellie whipped her head around, her brown hair a a quarter of a second behind. Her former coworker from nearly three years ago and his widened brown eyes stared at her. His hands that extended over his chest dropped carefully to his side.

“Oh!” She gaped at him but could hardly get any words out.

Hardy glanced at the prominent stain laying claim to most of the front side of her blouse and then back to her beady eyes. “Jesus Miller, sorry, did I do that?”. His wiry frame and face full of stubble hadn’t changed since she last saw him. She noticed his choice of business formal hadn’t altered either. There was a weariness about him, however, as if time, the usual intensity of his nature, or both had consumed a piece of life out of him.

“No, I just-“, Alec cut her off after the CS called out for him. “Let’s talk later”, he searched her eyes briefly but intensely for an acceptance of the request despite not offering it as a question that could be negotiated. He left her in a swift movement toward the front of the group, where it was then announced that Alec Hardy would be rejoining the Broadchurch police department.

  
——

  
Ellie had lunch at her desk after a morning of working out a draft summarizing the knowns and unknowns of Sohui Park’s murder. Ellie was on a streak of healthier eating and moderate exercise, which was certainly noticeable by her slimmer figure. Not only was she replacing her fish and chips and scotch egg lunches with salads and wraps, but she no longer had much reluctance of making the change as she once did. She felt lighter. Confident. The case from three years ago may have broken her marriage, may have broken her entirely, but she was finally starting to gain headway into self-acceptance and healing.

Ellie didn’t know when “later” would turn out to be, although she fought hard not to stew about it. Yet, throughout the afternoon she kept having to swallow a painful lump in her throat and tears forming in the corner of her eyes. Why did he feel the need to come back and not say anything to her? Did she even want him back after the state in which they left things? She didn’t want to shovel up all those memories.

By the end of the day, she had finished that report and set up meetings with a few potential leads. With some finessing, she collected all of her file papers and stuffed them in her cross-body, leaving only her lunch bag to carry by hand out to her car.

“Miller!”, shouted Hardy in the car park. He was carrying his coat and strode toward her with some unusual sense of urgency. Ellie continued walking, albeit slower and now carrying a slight bit of guilt for pretending to not hear him. And yet, despite Hardy not shouting after her a second time, she slowed down her pace before stopping a few cars away from her own, and squeezing her eyes shut. Hardy’s footsteps were heard behind her, and each one of them gave Ellie a bout of tachycardia. She turned around towards the now louder footsteps, and this time with exceeding caution.

“Hardy,” expressing painful politeness and nothing more. And every bit of this was painful to her.

“Hey”, he was trying to catch his breath. “I didn’t have any time to tell you this in the office, but I’m leading a meeting on Monday about the student case that you’ve started on.”

_Is he serious?_ “Oh, alright, I had no idea you knew I was on that case.” _I had no idea you were on the case, let alone back in this bloody town_ , she thought. She blurted a dry, smile-less chuckle and scanned his wrinkled forehead for reasons as to why he thought he had the nerve to take over another one of her cases. “I guess I’ll see you then.”

“Come over tonight, El, yeah?”

“What?” She couldn’t stand the possibility of evoking the memory associated with the last time he called her Ellie.

“I thought, well.. just stop by if you can. It’ll be quick, just case stuff.”

“It’s a Friday night and quite frankly with all the mess I’ve been dealing with for this new case, I’ve clocked out for the weekend.”

Hardy scratched the back of the head, his facial expression pained. “Dinner, then?”

“Did you not get the memo that you don’t just act like nothing’s happened when you decide to leave town for three years and not contact me?”

“You’re bringing this up _now_?”

“You’re right, Hardy. I should have brought this up sooner. Months, years ago. Except I did and if I recall correctly you never replied to any of my sodding texts.” Ellie then noticed the plain gold ring on his finger, reflecting sunlight, sharp and poignant. 

Back during the midst of the Danny Latimer and Sandbrook cases, Ellie’s therapist had taught her to identify little instances that made her feel those moments of transient anguish. Sometimes, the emotional triggers were small and slight, but even those made a sizable impact on mood. She had learned to make an effort to be more consciously aware of these troubling situations and how they affected her.

“You alright?” Hardy noticed her darkened facial expression.

“Oh, I’m perfectly fine.”, Ellie stammered out and continued walking toward her car. "And I presume you are as well by the look of it."

Hardy's face was momentarily washed with confusion. “Look, come by if you can. Just a few things I want to discuss and maybe get your input on. If not, fine.” He grabbed a pen and a sticky note out of his bag, scribbled the address of his new rental, and handed it to Ellie with a harried demeanor. He made way back to his car on the opposite side of the lot, and Ellie could see bouts of cool air caught between his hair, causing it to stick up and wave about as he darted away. 

“Absolute knob”, Ellie muttered and slammed the car door with enough force to startle the entire coastline of southern England. 

**Author's Note:**

> It's not perfect, but I've been hanging on to this draft for too long and will be trying to develop it. 
> 
> This is a bit of how I'd have preferred to see S3 start, especially with the strong emotional end to S2. But that's just me.


End file.
